Is an Ooni pizza oven worth it? We tested 9 pizza ovens to find the best

Everyone loves pizza — so why not enjoy making it at home? Whether your tastes run toward artisan-baked, wood-fired Italian styles with puffy, soft crusts, thin-crust New York slices, or deep-dish Chicago pies, the latest home pizza ovens let aspiring pizzaioli turn out pizzas that match — or even exceed — the quality of those you’d get from most local pizza joints.

To pick out the perfect pizza oven, we tested nine different leading pizza ovens in electric, gas, wood/charcoal-burning and multi-fuel configurations, spending 10 weeks making countless pizzas to find the best models for any dedicated home pizza baker.

Best pizza oven overall

The only electric pizza oven we tested, the breville Pizzaiolo was our favorite oven overall because of its predictable, consistent results and even cooking.

Best gas pizza oven

The gas-fueled Ooni Koda 16 had the most even heat distribution of the gas ovens we tested, making for fuss-free operation and perfectly charred and blistered artisanal pizza crust.

Best multi-fuel pizza oven

The Ooni Karu 16 was the simplest-to-use multi-fuel oven we tested, with straightforward switching between wood and gas and easy fuel loading — plus it made great artisanal pizzas with either fuel source.

Best wood-burning pizza oven

The Cru Model 30 has an incredibly simple, sturdy design and plenty of room to work in, and turned out delicious wood-fired pizzas.

$999.95 at Williams-Sonoma and Breville

The only electric pizza oven we looked at happens to be our favorite pizza oven overall. We utterly loved using the Pizzaiolo and consistently got the best results from it compared to every other oven we evaluated. It doesn’t get as hot as the competition (it can hit 750 degrees F while wood-and gas-fired ovens can get up to 900 degrees F) but, because it can control the temperature more precisely, it turns out evenly cooked crusts and overall better pizzas than any other oven we tested.

The Pizzaiolo doesn’t look much like the other pizza ovens we tested. Rather, the heavy stainless steel unit resembles an oversized toaster oven adorned with three push-button dials in front — one for selecting among pre-programmed baking temperatures, one for the baking timer and one for darkness adjustment.

But this is all you need to make perfect pizzas every time: no turning, no positioning, no vent adjusting. No futzing with anything. Simply pick your style with one of the preset modes, wait for it to come up to temperature (indicated with an LED “AT TEMP” light), place your pizza on a circular stone (which can accommodate pies of 11” or less) and wait for it to cook. It takes three minutes for a “Wood Fired,” eight minutes for a “New York,” and 18 minutes for a “Pan Pizza.” And unlike the gas, wood- and charcoal-burning ovens we tested, you can cook at any time of day, in any weather, indoors, in less time than it takes to cook a pizza with gas or with wood if we take setup, fuel loading and preheating into consideration.

We preferred the Pizzaiolo to everything else we evaluated because of its predictable, consistent results and even cooking, which comes from the placement and electronic control of the dual heating elements — one pair of concentric circular elements set below the stone and one above. The presets let you tailor the cooking chamber’s temperature precisely by independently controlling the heating elements and the operation of the oven’s convection fan, with constant fine-tuning courtesy of internal sensors. It’s an impressive piece of industrial design and technology. You can override the preprogrammed temperatures and set the heating elements manually, but we never explored this and we don’t expect most users will either.

It’s worth noting that, because of the lower and more consistent cooking temperatures compared to gas or wood ovens, you will not get the pronounced burn marks that give your pies that “artisan” look and crust texture, with leopard-skin crust char and big crust bubbles. Instead, you’ll get results similar to an American pizza parlor and slice shop with a steel deck electric setup: very evenly cooked crusts on top and bottom. But is there anything wrong with that? We think not.

We also found that the temperature indicator is solely visual and lacks an audible cue, so as you’re prepping in the kitchen, you’ll want to check for the LED after the suggested 18-20-minute preheat period. Nor is there an integrated thermometer to indicate the current temperature. Also, while the oven alerts you with a tone when the pizza is done, it’s not very loud and the oven continues cooking at temperature after the timer ends. Presumably, this is designed so you can reset the timer and load more pizzas, as with the gas and wood ovens, but to be safe, it’s a good idea to use an external timer.

However, these are pretty minor issues. Given the quality of pizzas we’ve gotten out of this unit, it’s a clear winner, even considering it’s the most expensive oven we tested. As with all of Breville’s products, the build quality is solid, and Breville’s 2-year warranty support is good (longer warranties are available when you purchase directly from Breville).

$599 at Ooni and Williams-Sonoma

If you’re looking to master the artistry of traditional pizza-making with a minimum of fuss, then we think the gas-fueled Ooni Koda — which we tested in the larger 16-inch version (it’s available in a more compact 12-inch configuration for $399) — will satisfy most aspiring backyard pizzaiolo. Gas lets it hit the 900-degree temperature required for Neapolitan-style pizzas without the fuss of stoking a wood fire.

The Koda can run from a 20-lb liquid propane (LP) tank or from a natural gas hookup (a $49 conversion kit is required). We found the setup to be relatively easy. We unpacked it from the box, unfolded its tripod legs, placed it on a stable fire-resistant surface (we used the Ooni modular table), installed the pizza stone and plugged in the tank.

Getting the Ooni Koda 16 fired up is as simple as turning the knob on the side, pushing it in and clicking it to ignition at full power. After about 15 minutes, the unusual L-shaped burner gets the oven up to 932 degrees F and the cordierite baking stone holds and distributes heat extremely well; the Ooni Koda 16 gave us a more even distribution of heat than the more expensive Karu and Gozney Roccbox. The Koda’s insulation — mineral wool sandwiched between the stainless steel inner shell and the outer, powder-coated carbon steel shell housing — also did a better job than most competitors, though we don’t recommend you touch the outside of the oven while it is hot.

As with all gas-fired ovens, it takes a bit of practice to get good results. The Koda gets very hot, and at maximum oven temperature, a pizza cooks in under 90 seconds, and will let you achieve that “leopard skin” and big blisters that pizza aficionados like to chase. But you’ll need to learn how to launch and position the pie using a peel, and then pay careful attention (you absolutely can’t walk away for even a moment), turning the pizza a quarter turn every 15 seconds so it cooks evenly.

You may want to lower the gas output immediately before cooking a pizza and then monitor the temperature with an infrared thermometer. Some pizza crusts do not need to cook at 900-degree F temperatures; you may get better results in the 600 degree to 700 degree F range, using longer cook times to get even cooking and the desired results. That said, should you burn parts off or leave ingredients on the stone, no worries — simply run the flame at high heat, incinerate it and scrape it off with a wire brush.

Overall, we felt the build quality was pretty decent, and it is certainly made of top materials which should last a long time; however, we recommend you buy a cover for it should you keep it outdoors. And if you can keep it indoors between use, that’s even better. There are a couple of downsides: there’s no integrated thermometer and no oven door, but it’s a great gas-only setup that turns out very enjoyable pizzas.

$799 at Ooni and Williams-Sonoma

While we feel that the gas-fueled Koda is the Ooni for the majority of home pizza makers, some aficionados will want the ability to cook with either wood or gas. Proponents of wood ovens appreciate the added flavor, or simply enjoy the artistry, replicating more closely the pizza baking methods used in Naples.

The Ooni Karu 16 multi-fuel pizza oven will give you these options. You can use the included wood fuel tray or install a gas burner accessory (the propane kit is $99; natural gas $149). The Koda 16 also adds a hinged metal front door with a large insulated handle, a glass window, and a bracket-mounted external digital thermometer with a thermocouple.

We evaluated the Karu 16 in both liquid propane gas and wood configurations. Unlike the Koda, which has an L-shaped burner, the Karu has two large gas jets that take the place of the wood fuel tray at the rear of the oven. Installation took us about 10 minutes, with a hinged door, a backplate, and the thermometer being the three main components requiring the use of the included Torx wrench.

In gas mode, we got roughly similar results to the Koda 16, though pizzas tended to cook more evenly with less effort in the gas-specific Koda. However, we had no problems getting those leopard spots and crust bubbles with Karu’s dual rear gas jets, we just need to pay careful attention to rotating our pizzas.

Turning to wood fuel, we couldn’t tell the difference from a flavor standpoint, likely because at such high temperatures we got only a brief exposure to the hardwood we were using. However, we found it was much easier to overcook the pies, and more careful heat management was necessary. This is accomplished using the Karu’s stainless steel vented smokestack and in-oven vent control (when the oven is in operation you’ll want to use something other than your hands to adjust it, such as BBQ tongs, as it is far too hot).

We did get some great pizzas from the oven in wood mode, and the Karu’s design made the process relatively easy. In particular, the rear cover makes it easy to add additional wood and charcoal and prevents wind from extinguishing the fire.

At almost 63 lbs, the Karu 16 is too heavy to be considered “portable” when compared with the 40-lb Koda 16, so you will want to put it on a sturdy surface, such as a metal table with caster wheels so you can move it in and out of the elements. If you intend on keeping it outside, then you’ll want the cover as well. If you don’t want such a big oven but still want to keep your fuel options open, then the smaller Karu 12 is available for $399.

$449 at BBQ Guys and Cru Ovens

Although we are, admittedly, fans of electric and gas pizza cooking for convenience and ease of heat management, we think the Cru Oven Model 30, an all-stainless steel pizza oven made in Portugal, is the best choice for those who prefer to focus on wood-fired pizza baking.

The Cru Oven Model 30 is about as barebones as it gets when compared to the others on this list – it’s not insulated, there’s no separate removable tray for removing and loading wood, and no thermometer. With its large ceiling arc and unfinished, laser-cut steel panels, it has a distinct, almost steampunk personality — think Mad Max Beyond Napoli. It’s basically a wood-burning stove or outdoor fireplace that makes pizza.

But the interior heat reflectivity is excellent, and the oven’s generous interior with a high ceiling makes it very easy to maneuver your pizzas, and the ceramic stone is easily removable and can be replaced (or you can substitute 3rd-party options if desired).

Fueling the oven is simple. You load the wood at the center of the stone, make a teepee, and light it on fire – we used square firestarters and a BIC butane lighter wand. When everything is burning nicely, you push it all back to the rear of the oven using the included ember rake. As the fuel burns down to embers and pizzas are removed, you load more fuel, approximately every 15 minutes. Vent management? There isn’t any. There’s a stainless steel smokestack, which has no controls. You put in fuel; it burns; you cook. When it cools off, you brush out the ashes. The Cru Oven Model 30 does come with a front door cover, but you’re not meant to cook with it – it’s for extinguishing the flames and for shielding the interior from the elements when not in use.

We loved the pizzas that came out of this oven — you can produce artisan-style pies with the Cru Oven Model 30 and achieve the big bubbles and high char levels that wood-fired enthusiasts want. But as this is the most primitive of designs, developing fuel management skills on this oven is paramount, so it isn’t for everyone. Because there is no way to adjust airflow (there are no vents!), you need to develop a sense of how long to wait for the fuel to burn down to the desired temperature range that will hold for as many minutes as you need to cook the pie.

By the way, under no circumstances should you touch this because it has no insulation, and you’ll easily burn yourself, as my wife learned when she accidentally touched the edge of it briefly. Keep kids away when using this — and carefully consider whether you should even own one if you have inquisitive small children around.

Beyond that, there just isn’t much to go wrong, and it is built to last. Should the world become a post-apocalyptic nightmare, you’ll at least be able to feed scavenging hordes some pretty nice pizza.

Choosing a pizza oven: Gas, wood or electric?

The pizza ovens that we looked at let you reach back to pizza’s Italian roots, achieving temperatures over 900 degrees F to execute pies to the strict requirements of the Associazione Verace Pizza Napoletana, on your patio, without having to build or permanently install a brick oven. All of the ovens we looked at are simple in design: a chamber designed to hold a flat, thick pizza “stone,” usually made of ceramic or a manufactured material that contains the mineral cordierite, designed to hold and distribute the high levels of heat needed to evenly bake a pizza.

We tested ovens that use several types of fuel: wood (hardwood, fruitwoods, hardwood lump charcoal or wood pellets), gas (liquid propane or natural gas). Some are “multi-fuel” meaning they can be configured to burn either wood or gas, swapping out a special refillable hopper, propane or natural gas burner as desired. And we checked out a single electric model, Breville’s Pizzaiolo.

We had no problem reaching the desired 900-degree-plus F temperature with any of the gas or wood-fueled ovens we teste. The choice of gas or wood really comes down to taste and how much time you want to spend fine-tuning your technique and managing your fuel supply.

Gas is more forgiving in that you don’t need to add fuel over the course of your baking, and you can adjust the temperature without learning to manage to vent or waiting for fuel to burn down — just turn a knob as you would on a stove or grill.

Wood takes more practice and is better suited for serious home bakers who are interested in mastering the craft of baking in the traditional Neapolitan style. There’s more work involved since temperature management is dependent on the timing of your fuel supply and careful attention to the venting of the oven chamber itself.

That temperature instability is what can give you a more pronounced crust char on a pie baked in a wood-burning oven — the temperature spikes and drops produce that effect, which many associate with an “artisanal” look and taste. You need to be very careful, of course, because the timing is critical not only for the crust but for the toppings — unless those are minimal, you don’t want to keep your oven at extremely high heat all the time.

That takes a lot of practice, and we had trouble consistently creating this effect in the ovens we looked at, given the difficulty in maintaining high heat on the stones – when we were more occupied with fuel management, we had to pay less attention to cooking the actual pizzas.

An electric oven is the simplest to operate, and the one we tested, though it couldn’t get hot enough to produce an artisanally charred crust, was much easier to use and turned out more consistently good pizzas. We think it’s a compromise most amateur home cooks would be willing to make, and that we much preferred during our testing.

As with anything culinary, cooking pizza is a science that requires years to master, but part of the enjoyment in cooking pizza is learning how to achieve the results you want. Working in a very hot oven requires constant attention, and you’ll need to rotate your pizzas frequently during their brief cooking time.

While all of the gas and wood-fueled ovens gave us similar results, some oven designs made the baker’s task easier. Narrower openings gave us less room to “launch” or place our pizzas on the stone and subsequently rotate and maneuver as they cooked, making it harder to execute a perfectly cooked pie, regardless of the fuel technology (the Breville electric oven was an outlier, requiring no interaction during cooking).

While most ovens are simple “open” designs — meaning that the slot or opening in the front has no cover when in use — some, such as the Ooni Karu 16 and Cuisinart 3-in-1, use doors or removable front covers. Ovens that are insulated and of thick construction (such as the Oonis or the Roccbox), are safer to touch or be close to when running at maximum oven temperature. Others are uninsulated, relying on a reflective heat design to evenly cook the pizzas (such as the Cru and the Bertollo).

Speaking of heat, all of these ovens are designed for outdoor use only — except for the Breville Pizzaiolo, which is an electric one that can be used indoors. The rest should never be used indoors where they would pose a serious fire hazard and threat to safety because their exhaust gasses need to be vented properly when in operation.

How we tested

Except for the single electric model we looked at, which was used in our home kitchen, we propped all of these pizza ovens on top of either the grill grates of our outdoor gas grill or on a heavy, dedicated, movable steel table with locking caster wheels (the $250 large Ooni Modular Table).

For fuel, we used 20-lb liquid propane tanks purchased at our local Home Depot for the gas-capable units. For the wood-capable units, we used 6-inch white oak mini splits formulated for pizza ovens by Carolina Cookwood, combined with small amounts of Brazilian hardwood charcoal. The single example where we used only fruitwood pellets was with the Ooni Fyra.

The pizza dough we used is a 72-hour fermentation recipe formulated based on the Gozney “Perfect Pizza Dough” with some adaptations, using King Arthur Bread Flour.

Each oven was used for cooking at least a dozen pies at a range of oven temperatures. The benchmark test pizza was a standard New York-style thin-crust plain, with 240g dough balls, using low-moisture Kirkland brand shredded mozzarella from Costco and canned pizza sauces with minimal added sugar or other additives.

We used (and recommend) both the Cento Fully Prepared Pizza Sauce and the Muir Glen Organic Pizza Sauce for convenience and consistency of results, price point, retail supply chain availability and overall taste for use as a general sauce base. We also liked Rao’s as a super-premium option if you are not inclined to process and formulate your own sauce, but it really didn’t taste any better than the canned sauces recommended above in the finished pizza. The best option (and the best value), however, is to buy canned ground, crushed, or whole tomatoes and can process and customize your sauce recipe as desired.

For inspiration and further reading, we recommend participation in the various Facebook communities for home pizza baking (such as those for Gozney, Ooni, and Breville) and Dan Richer’s The Joy of Pizza (November 2021).

Performance

Build and Design

Care

Other pizza ovens we tested

Gozney Roccbox Pizza Oven (wood and gas)

$599 at Gozney

The Gozney Roccbox certainly has a lot going for it; its performance was on par with the Ooni Koda 16, our top gas oven. Getting those big bubbles and nice crust char was no problem on the Roccbox if that’s what you’re looking to achieve.

The Roccbox is also the best-insulated oven on our list, with a stainless steel inner and outer casing stuffed with ceramic fiber and jacketed in silicone rubber that effectively retains heat and, more importantly, makes it more comfortable to work in front of and safe to touch, even when the interior is scorching hot. It also has a built-in thermometer and the thickest pizza stone out of the ovens we tested. And it’s set up to be portable, with folding legs, a nylon sling and a handle that makes it a good choice for tailgating (and has made it a favorite of vendors at farmer’s markets).

While it’s a great oven, it didn’t make the top of our list for a couple of reasons. First, it has a small oven chamber and, though it’s meant for 12-inch pizzas, you really need to know what you’re doing to maneuver a bigger pie. In practice, we found it better suited to making 9-inch pizzas, which means more time spent cooking more pizzas for a hungry family or large group.

Though the Roccbox is sold as a multi-fuel oven, we thought that the wood hopper was undersized and relatively difficult to load; it required constant feeding with small chunks of wood to maintain temperature. We recommend the multi-fuel Ooni Karu or the Cru Oven if you’re interested in cooking with wood.

And lastly, the stone is permanently mounted, which can pose a problem if it cracks as replacements aren’t available. We’ve heard reports on Facebook groups of users replacing the stone using 3rd-party products with minor modifications, but this is best left to serious enthusiasts. So, despite the advantages of the thicker stone, beginners should stick with the Ooni.

Bertello Pizza Oven Everything Bundle (wood, charcoal, pellet, gas)

$449 at Bertello

There’s a lot to like about the Bertello 12-inch multi-fuel “Everything” bundle, especially as it is priced well below the comparable 12-inch Karu and the Roccbox for everything it does and includes. It includes a gas burner, two types of wood fuel trays (one can be used in combination with gas), an infrared thermometer, a wood-handled steel perforated pizza peel and an outdoor cover.

The black-painted steel oven has a similar design to the Ooni Karu in that the baker can swap out the rear of the oven with a wood burner tray or a gas burner attachment (with an optional smaller wood burner in front for simultaneous fuel use).

The Bertello’s gas burner (which feels a bit as if it were designed after the fact) is a tad cumbersome as it is very long and tends to droop off the back of the oven. But that doesn’t affect its performance; we got the Bertello to well over 900 degrees F and that made for some rather nice pies.

However, the oven’s opening is very shallow, and we found it much more difficult to maneuver the pizzas inside it than in the Oonis or the Roccbox. That made for a more challenging cooking experience and required we make smaller pies than the oven is meant to accommodate. Bertello has since released a larger, 16” model with a more generous opening and taller interior oven ceiling (we were not able to evaluate the larger model in time for this review), so that may be a product worth considering.

Ooni Fyra 12” Pizza Oven

$349.95 at Williams-Sonoma

The Ooni Fyra 12” Pizza Oven is a bit of an oddball on this list because, while it is “wood burning,” it uses pellets rather than splits, kindling or charcoal as fuel. It has a similar construction and design to the 12” version of the Karu, with a vent-controlled smokestack. But it has a rear hopper for pellet loading into its removable combustion chamber.

While we liked the idea of a pellet-based pizza oven due to how evenly and consistently the fuel burns (and no doubt many folks who use Traegers and other pellet-based grills and BBQ smokers will appreciate this design), the hopper is so small that it requires constant feeding (every five minutes or less) to get the oven up to pizza cooking temperatures. If you’re someone who can pay a lot of attention to this process, then you can make some lovely pies. But we were more focused on fuel temperature and heat management on this oven than we were on cooking the pizzas themselves. We see this oven as one that appeals to campers and those who love to play with fuel loading.

Cuisinart CPO-600 Alfrescamore Outdoor Pizza Oven

$299.99 $206.99 at Walmart

At just over $220, the Cuisinart Alfrescamore is the most inexpensive pizza oven on our list. And while we would love to recommend it for its thriftiness, it is just too low-performance and chintzy in construction for us to consider using something like this when really, you can get better results out of your outdoor gas grill by simply placing some cheap quarry tiles or an aftermarket pizza stone accessory on top of your grill grates. The Cuisinart Alfrescamore is portable in that it is designed to use 1-lb LP canisters, but with such a small amount of fuel, you will run out of it so quickly trying to achieve pizza cooking temperatures; you’ll end up using a standard 20-lb LP canister adapter hose anyway (which doesn’t come with the product).

Cuisinart CGG-403 3-in-1 Pizza Oven, Griddle and Grill

$299.99 $247 at Walmart

At just under $250, this pizza oven is only slightly more expensive than the Cuisinart Alfrescamore oven and is a lot more versatile; it’s also, in our opinion, better designed and better performing. It also is configured to use 20-lb propane tanks out of the box. But this is less a pizza oven in our estimation than a small outdoor grill (and griddle) with a pizza baking stone and rack that sits above a small output gas burner. Setup was a bit of a pain in the neck as it has about 20 bolts that need to be attached to it to mount the base, consisting of four legs and a storage shelf. Still, once we got it running, we enjoyed cooking a few pies in it — just don’t expect results like the Ooni or Roccbox. And with cooking temperatures between 450-550 degrees F, it’s going to take longer to cook your smallish pies.

Source: www.cnn.com